University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota-UALR Post-Game Quotes
12/9/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Post-Game Quotes
Minnesota Interim Head Coach Jim Molinari
On the rebounding disadvantage:
“The only way to solve that is to find different ways to go. In the last 10-12 minutes of the game, we played Dan Coleman at the three in hopes that would solve it. It did for awhile, but they beat us hard on the boards. We have to look bigger and maybe use some different people. We just have to figure out a way. We can’t give up those second shots.”
On what the difference was on the boards:
“Rebounding is heart, athletic ability and fight. There are a lot of different things that go into it. A team like this which is the second-leading rebounding team in the country exposed us. That said, we should not have been beaten that bad on the boards. You can’t let a team get 17 points off of second shots.”
On preparing for UALR:
“They looked pretty strong and athletic on tape. We told our young men that so I don’t think we were shocked. I give them credit. They had a good plan and came in and fought.”
On the end of the game:
“I was more concerned about our defense on the other end. He put us in a position to win. We didn’t have any timeouts left, so I told the team, ‘We’re going to get this stop.’ We put Limar in to have him go all the way to the basket. That’s what he did, but I was more concerned about our defense on the other end. We didn’t compete on the defensive end.”
On the team’s defensive effort:
“We’ve started sluggish before, but I also think we picked it up more. We picked it up today, but we never really got over the hump until the last possession. We didn’t have much of a defensive presence, mainly because of rebounding. We will have a defensive presence.”
On a majority of the scoring coming from three guys:
“We need to solve the three position. When we get a break after next Tuesday and after finals, we need to work on getting some confidence in some other guys who aren’t really looking to score. We have to work with a lot of these young men on their individual skill work.”
UALR Head Coach Steve Shields
Opening statement:
“We feel very fortunate with the way the game played out there right at the end. We got a good look and then our transition defense wasn’t where it needed to be at that point. Wilson made a tremendous play getting the ball quick off the outlet. Akins did a good job of getting back to secure the paint. We were fortunate that Wilson missed two free throws, but you have to pat the young man on the back. He played 37 minutes and had a tremendous game despite a very difficult situation he had in the last few seconds.”
On his team’s rebounding advantage:
“We’ve been a very good rebounding team, although we’ve been out-rebounded in our last three ball games. We were in a little bit of a slump, but that’s kind of our bread and butter. We have to get on the offensive glass. We struggled a lot at times to get the ball to go in the hole. You have to give yourself extra opportunities on the offensive end when you do struggle.
“We felt like that was going to be critical. Another stat in the game was the turnover margin. We had 18 turnovers to their nine. They valued the basketball much better than we did. Rebounding is something that requires toughness. We may not be the most skilled guys, but I think we have very good toughness up there with Ray and Jones-Jennings.”
On what his team needs to do to win:
“We have good senior leadership with Ray and Jones-Jennings. I feel like we can be a pretty good basketball team when we have an edge. If we don’t have an edge about us and go out there with complacency, we’re not going to be very good. We had a little bit of an edge that we haven’t had the last couple of games.”
Minnesota Players
Junior center Spencer Tollackson
On the rebounding disadvantage:
"No, I’ve never seen it that one-sided. That’s why we lost. It wasn’t free throws at the end and it wasn’t defensive stops. If you get out-rebounded 42-16 and you play 100 games, you’re going to lose 99 of them. Obviously, we lost because of that."
On improving rebounding:
"We have been working on it in practice. Certain guys are going to have to step up and say that enough is enough and do something to try to fix it, because that’s why we’re losing games."
On rebounding mindset during the game:
"Obviously, we work on those things in practice. I’m not sure if we’re doing the wrong things in practice or if we’re just not bringing those things to the game. I don’t know if we’re underestimating teams or what it is. It is our job as a team to try and figure out what the problem is and fix it."
On UALR:
"We knew coming in that they were a good team. We watched a lot of film and prepared for them a lot, so I don’t think we looked past them."
Junior guard Lawrence McKenzie
On the game:
"It's definitely disappointing and everybody is a little down in the locker room. It's an unfortunate loss, but we have to move on. It’s a long season and we can’t dwell on this loss even though it really hurts."
On the rebounding situation:
"Its definitely frustrating. We understand that they have the leading rebounder in the nation, but that’s not an excuse. It's something that we have to work on. We have to take things more seriously in practice, and it's something that Coach Molinari is probably going to have us work on tomorrow and for the rest of the season."
On the attitude toward rebounding:
"We have to play tougher, including myself. You can’t just blame the big guys, because it’s a team effort. Especially on the defensive end, we have to get more rebounds. When teams get second and third chances, it makes it easier to score."
